Growing teratoma syndrome is an infrequent presentation of testicular cancer. We present a case of growing teratoma syndrome in a patient who initially presented with clinical stage I nonseminomatous testicular germ cell tumor, who subsequently developed large volume oligometastases to the retroperitoneum, thorax, and thigh. Despite two regimens of chemotherapy, his disease progressed. Complete surgical extirpation of all gross tumors confirmed mature teratoma. An aggressive surgical approach, including postchemotherapy resection of all known metastatic sites, can provide long-term disease-free survival...

Approaches to nephron-sparing surgeries (NSS) of renal lesions include partial nephrectomy (PN) and tumor enucleation (TE). Our objective was to examine the pathology of the pseudocapsule and status of the surgical margin in small renal masses treated by NSS and to correlate these findings with the surgical and oncological outcomes. All consecutive renal TE and PN specimens obtained during the period between January 2012 and December 2014, of which clinical follow-up was available, were included in this study...

Dietary lipid intake can be associated with an increased risk for colorectal cancer depending on its composition. Carcinogenesis alters lipid metabolism to facilitate cell growth and survival. For instance, metabolites of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are associated with increasing colon cell proliferation. Moreover, precancerous colon lesions (i.e. adenomas) increase the risk for colorectal cancer. In this study, we investigated associations between plasma PUFAs and the number of colon polyps and polyp type (i...

We present an 88-year-old male with simultaneous T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia and stable smoldering myeloma with excellent initial response to three months of alemtuzumab. The patient relapsed at twelve months with severe cutaneous disease. Biopsy of a representative plaque demonstrated CD30 positivity in rare malignant lymphocytes. The patient demonstrated no response to reintroduction with a full course of alemtuzumab. He was therefore treated with brentuximab vedotin, resulting in partial remission of skin involvement that persisted for three months...

The coordination between N-p-methylbenzyl-d-galactonoamidine, a putative transition state analogue of the hydrolyis of glycosidic bonds, and symmetric and chiral binuclear copper(ii) complexes was characterized by spectroscopic titration, isothermal titration calorimetry, circular dichroism spectroscopy, and DFT calculations to elucidate the binding sites in the carbohydrate upon coordination to selected metal complexes. For the formation of metal complex-glyconoamidine assemblies, contributions of the amidine site and of the hydroxyl group at C-2 in the glycon of the amidine are noted...

With the cell therapy industry continuing to grow, the ability to preserve clinical grade cells, including mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), whilst retaining cell viability and function remains critical for the generation of off-the-shelf therapies. Cryopreservation of MSCs, using slow freezing, is an established process at lab scale. However, the cytotoxicity of cryoprotectants, like Me2SO, raises questions about the impact of prolonged cell exposure to cryoprotectant at temperatures >0 °C during processing of large cell batches for allogenic therapies prior to rapid cooling in a controlled rate freezer or in the clinic prior to administration...

An emerging group of high-grade renal cell carcinomas (RCCs), particularly carcinomas arising in the hereditary leiomyomatosis renal cell carcinoma syndrome (HLRCC), show fumarate hydratase (FH) gene mutation and loss of function. On the basis of similar cytomorphology and clinicopathologic features between these tumors and cases described as tubulocystic carcinomas with poorly differentiated foci (TC-PD) of infiltrative adenocarcinoma, we hypothesized a relationship between these entities. First, 29 RCCs with morphology of TC-PD were identified retrospectively and assessed for FH expression and aberrant succination (2SC) by immunohistochemistry (IHC), with targeted next-generation sequencing of 409 genes-including FH-performed on a subset...

The relative contribution of self-perpetuating versus hemodynamic-induced fibrosis to the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD) after acute kidney injury (AKI) is unclear. In the present study, male Sprague-Dawley rats underwent right uninephrectomy and were instrumented with a blood pressure radiotelemeter. Two weeks later, separate groups of rats were subjected to 40 minutes renal ischemia-reperfusion or sham surgery and followed up for 4 or 16 weeks to determine the extent to which glomerulosclerosis and tubulointerstitial fibrosis as a result of the AKI-CKD transition (ie, at 4 weeks post AKI) change over time during the progression of CKD (ie, at 16 weeks post AKI)...

PURPOSE: Renal tumor enucleation allows for maximal parenchymal preservation. Identifying pseudocapsule integrity is critically important in nephron sparing surgery by enucleation. Tumor invasion into and through the capsule may have clinical implications, although it is not routinely commented on in standard pathological reporting. We describe a system to standardize the varying degrees of pseudocapsule invasion and identify predictors of invasion. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a multicenter retrospective review between 2002 and 2014 at Indiana University Hospital and Loyola University Medical Center...

BACKGROUND: Data regarding risk factors for readmissions after surgical resection for lung cancer are limited and largely focus on postoperative outcomes, including complications and hospital length of stay. The current study aims to identify preoperative risk factors for postoperative readmission in early stage lung cancer patients. METHODS: The National Cancer Data Base was queried for all early stage lung cancer patients with clinical stage T2N0M0 or less who underwent lobectomy in 2010 and 2011...

Here we report on a study of a rheological behavior of sodium alginate and montmorillonite suspension. We find that viscoelastic behavior of this suspension is dramatically affected with increasing volume fraction of montmorillonite platelets. Addition of montmorillonite generally leads to gel formation, which is attributed to interactions of montmorillonite and alginate via H-bonding and attraction between the positive edges of the platelets and the anionic backbone of the biopolymer. A critical concentration for the measured system was observed at 20wt...

OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that morphology is the best predictor of clinical pregnancy (CP) when employing intrauterine insemination (IUI). STUDY DESIGN: We retrospectively reviewed a registry of 527 couples who collectively underwent 1,027 IUI cycles, testing sperm parameters and other variables with univariate and multivariate analyses for association with CP. With the literature scant regarding the impact of sperm morphology on IUI outcome, we determined semen parameter threshold values in our patient population and compared them to published reference range values...

PURPOSE: To explore inter-professional home evaluators' perspectives and needs for building useful and acceptable decision-support tools for the field of home modifications. METHOD: Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with a range of home modification professionals from different regions of the United States. The interview transcripts were analyzed with a qualitative, descriptive, perspective approach. RESULTS: Technology supports current best practice and has potential to inform decision making through features that could enhance home evaluation processes, quality, efficiency and inter-professional communication...

PURPOSE: The objective of this project is to demonstrate the principle and operation for a simple, inexpensive, and highly portable Doppler ultrasound quality assurance (QA) phantom intended for routine QA testing. A prototype phantom has been designed, fabricated, and evaluated. The phantom described here is powered by gravity alone, requires no external equipment for operation, and produces a stable fluid velocity useful for quality assurance. Many commercially available Doppler ultrasound testing systems can suffer from issues such as a lengthy setup, prohibitive cost, nonportable size, or difficulty in use...

Aiming at the development of potent inhibitors of β-glucosidases, a small library of galactonoamidines and one arabinoamidine derived in analogy were studied as inhibitors of sweet almond β-glucosidase. The five-membered glycon in arabinoamidine was shown to interact with the proton donor in the active site of the retaining enzyme, but not with the nucleophile. By contrast, the corresponding galactonoamidine with a six-membered glycon and identical aglycon interacts with both hydrolysis-promoting amino acids in the active site and inhibits the enzymatic hydrolysis of β-glucosides in the low nanomolar concentration range...

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and human metapneumovirus (HMPV) are paramyxoviruses that are responsible for substantial human health burden, particularly in children and the elderly. The fusion (F) glycoproteins are major targets of the neutralizing antibody response and studies have mapped dominant antigenic sites in F. Here we grafted a major neutralizing site of RSV F, recognized by the prophylactic monoclonal antibody palivizumab, onto HMPV F, generating a chimeric protein displaying epitopes of both viruses...

BACKGROUND: Proposed changes in health care will place an increasing burden on surgeons to care for patients more efficiently to minimize cost. We reviewed costs surrounding video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) lobectomies to see where changes could be made to ensure maximum value. METHODS: We queried The Society of Thoracic Surgeons database for all VATS lobectomies performed for lung cancer from January 2011 to December 2013. Clinical data were linked with hospital financial data to determine hospital expenditures for each patient...

OBJECTIVE: To validate the efficacy of laser therapy for TTTS in the treatment of recipient twin cardiomyopathy and investigate if severity of preoperative cardiomyopathy can predict fetal survival postoperatively. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective study of MCDA pregnancies complicated by TTTS treated by selective fetoscopic laser photocoagulation (SFLP) performed between March 2010 and October 2014 at a single center. The recipient right ventricular (RV) and left ventricular (LV) MPI were measured both pre and postoperatively...

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a neoplastic lymphoproliferative disorder characterized by uncontrolled monoclonal plasma cell proliferation. Among different isotypes of MM, immunoglobulin D (IgD) MM is very rare, representing only 1 to 2% of all isotypes. Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is a neoplastic myeloproliferative disorder of pluripotent hematopoietic stem cell, which is characterized by the uncontrolled proliferation of myeloid cells. An 88-year-old male was diagnosed simultaneously with IgD kappa MM and CML...